Georgia Bulldogs
Bye Bye Beck
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Carson Beck committed to Miami on Friday. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound QB is headed to Coral Gables for his final year of eligibility.
Beck started 13 games for Georgia in 2024. He completed 290 passes on 448 attempts — a 64.7 completion percentage — for 3,485 yards with 28 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He threw for 7,912 yards with 58 touchdowns and 20 interceptions during his time as a Bulldog.
Beck entered the 2024 season as a preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, but his play early in the year did not meet the lofty goal. Beck threw 7 total touchdowns in Georgia’s first two games before throwing for a measly 160 yards and no touchdowns in a 13-12 thriller at Kentucky.
The situation got worse at Alabama, where Beck threw 3 interceptions and fumbled in a 41-34 loss for the Bulldogs.
Beck threw 2 touchdowns against Auburn before throwing 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions against Mississippi State.
His turnover issues came into focus again on Oct. 19 against Texas, when he did not throw for a single touchdown and threw 3 picks in a 30-15 victory for the Bulldogs.
Beck explained prior to the SEC title game that the first Texas game was an eye opener in terms of what he should and should not do with the football.
“You go back and you watch that game, and there’s just some situations where maybe I was trying to force the ball when it didn’t need to and maybe trying to make plays when they weren’t there,” Beck said.
“I think that’s one thing that I’ve really improved on as we’ve gotten into this kind of later half of the season, is not trying to do too much and just playing within myself and playing within the offense. Knowing when to try to make a play and knowing when to just chalk it up and move on to the next one. There’s three downs to get a first down for a reason. You don’t have to try to get it all in one play, and I think I’ve done a better job at that in this second half of the season.”
Beck threw 3 interceptions two weeks later against Florida and from there his turnover issues subsided.
He threw 1 interception the following week at Ole Miss and zero in his final four games of the year, all of which were Georgia victories.
Beck’s season came to a close following a big hit during the SEC championship game back on Dec. 7.Beck was injured on the final play of the first half of the SEC title game against Texas.
Beck was hit by Trey Moore on a last-second Hail Mary attempt, which led to Beck falling awkwardly on his left arm. Beck stayed down on the turf momentarily and was tended to by UGA trainers before he stood up by himself and headed to the locker room.
He did not throw another pass after sustaining the injury in the conference title game, but he was not done for the day. He checked back in for what was ultimately the game’s final play after Gunner Stockton had to leave for one play due to his helmet coming off.
Beck underwent elbow surgery on Dec. 23, which means he will not resume throwing until the spring. He was present for Georgia’s 23-10 loss to Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2.
Beck initially declared for the NFL Draft on Dec. 28. He changed his course of action on Jan. 9 and instead entered the transfer portal.
Beck joins a Hurricanes team hungry to make the College Football Playoff under alum Mari Cristobal. The Hurricanes went 10-2 in the 2024 regular season, which left them at No. 13 in the final CFP ranking.
Beck replaces Cam Ward, who, like Beck, had declared for the draft before deciding to enter the portal and land at Miami.
Ward is considered by many to be the eventual top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft after throwing for 4,313 yards with 39 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
The rumor is Miami is forking out 4 million compared to his current deal with Georgia at 2.5 million.
Beck can now afford 2 Lamborghinis!
New Tricks Needed?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The signs were always there. The Alabama game. The Ole Miss game. Even plenty of victories: Kentucky, Georgia Tech, and the SEC Championship Game.
It all left everyone, including those within the Georgia football program, questioning if this was a group that actually would keep the legacy going to another championship.
We got that answer in the College Football Playoff. It was definitive. Georgia was not the best team in the country this year and they deserved their fate.
Now it leads to the next mystery: Was this game, and rocky season a kick in the butt to the program? Was this season a message that Georgia’s not the elite it was two years ago?
Does leadership need to change goals and make moves to avoid slipping further?
Although Georgia was ultimately still the SEC champion, they lost in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals when they were down to their backup quarterback.
Kirby Smart said some curious things after the loss to Notre Dame. Let’s start with his post-mortem on the season, which he called “Easily the toughest of my tenure.” That may be a bit of recency bias.
The truth reared its ugly face at The Bulldogs, and it said: Get better as a football program. Let Kirby’s above words sit and remember people- it’s not a second-year coach trying to get his program to another level, but the ninth-year coach of a team that won two of the previous three national titles.
Maybe on some level Kirby Smart mirrors his mentor Nick Saban with the mentality of always trying to improve, even when on top. Or maybe this year’s team is a reflection that this program isn’t on top right now.
There’s no clear answer. You can argue that transfer rules and paying players have changed the game.
The Big Ten and Notre Dame having three of the four semifinalists feed into that argument. But the 2022 season wasn’t that long ago, right? It’s not like this was a crashing disappointment for the Dawgs: They’re 4-1 against teams that made the Playoffs, the only one they lost was in the Playoffs.
There was just something missing, and Smart’s job is to figure out what that was, and to what extent does this team need to change.
Now for some apparent good news: Gunner Stockton looks like a viable starter for 2025-26. His pocket presence needs to improve, but that should grow with experience.
The underrated gap between Carson Beck and Stockton, in a start of this magnitude, may have been game management and making checks at the line, which Stockton acknowledged.
But if it is Stockton, the coaches need to acquire help around them. QBs and Coaches need receivers who won’t drop the ball. Georgia was burned during this portal window by receivers unsure of the identity or throwing ability of Georgia’s quarterback next season.
Maybe Stockton’s play helps convince recruits and transfers.
Let’s be clear. There is risk in overstating what happened in this game. Georgia outgained the Irish and averaged more yards. They reached the red zone more often. It’s not like this was a domination. Georgia belonged on the same field, but Georgia should be the more mature program in the building; all evidence says they were.
Instead, Georgia committed the game’s only two turnovers, gave up a 98-yard kickoff return because of missed tackles, and coach Smart made risks that backfired.
Looking back, much of Georgia’s problem was being outplayed by Notre Dame, especially in the second half, when UGA approached the cusp of another epic comeback and failed: The defense made a big fourth-down stop, handing the offense the ball at midfield. A 10-point game, plenty of time left, momentum at Georgia’s back. But the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize, with go-nowhere plays on third-and-3 and fourth-and-2.
That was yet another mystery about this team. Stockton, whose arm was the question coming in, passed for 234 yards and looked pretty good for a new starter. Georgia just couldn’t run the ball, despite Notre Dame being without its best defensive player, lineman Rylie Mills. The Dawgs also did not protect well, yielding four sacks.
The offense will remain the focus. The defense can reload by retaining the talented youngsters who understudied this year. This Bulldog team will still be young, and this year’s inconsistent play showed that Georgia doesn’t have a birthright to elite defenses in today’s College Football Landscape.
Georgia isn’t automatically elite just because of rings in 2021 and 2022. They aren’t automatically elite as long as Smart is coach, he is starting to lose.
Although optimism still reigned in a losing locker room, do they deserve optimism with this result?
What did this loss mean for the program? Was it a hit to the ego?
Gunner?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
How well Gunner Stockton will perform is still unclear.
As the world finds out about him off the field, Stockton’s a Georgia folk hero, his bona fide attributes are being filled in: his small-town roots, how he got his name, the fact he drives a 1984 Ford pickup. Stockton keeps four or five cows back home in Rabun County, which has become a running joke with some of his Georgia teammates.
There is no known correlation between bovine ownership and quarterback ability, and in less than a week, Georgia faces off against Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
Here are a few football-centric takeaways from Saturday, the day before Georgia leaves for New Orleans. After offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and four of his players met with members of the media.
Georgia guard Tate Ratledge forgot something at the team facility one night this week, and when he went back to get it at 10 p.m., he saw Stockton still there, watching film.
That wasn’t that unusual, according to Delp, who said Stockton watched film for four to five hours after practices in the regular season, not knowing if he would even play as the No. 2 quarterback.
Bobo said he could tell Stockton “took to heart” that he needed to prepare each week like a starter. That helped him seamlessly replace Carson Beck in the second half of the SEC Championship Game by leading a touchdown drive right away.
Stockton possessed a game plan focused on Beck’s pocket-passing skills and integrated into UGA’s high-performing offense seamlessly.
The extra time to adjust and prepare should be a big help for the offense. Before Georgia knew they would play Notre Dame, Georgia’s “back to basics” approach during the first week of practice kept Stockton in more situational drills: two-minute, third-down and red zone.
It helped Stockton lead the offense, rather than serving as the understudy or scout-team veteran.
“Now I can tell he has full control of this huddle,” Ratledge said.
That said, the spark was already there when Stockton came in during the SEC Championship Game. The past few weeks of practice seemed to have cemented it.
“Just seeing the way he’s carried himself and done everything the right way in his prior years leading up to this moment, Gunner’s just a guy you want to block for,” Ratledge said.
“He’s just a great guy, plays with a lot of emotion, brings everybody with him, and now he has the whole team behind him, ready to roll.”
The offense hasn’t had a sterling year: Georgia ranks 30th in scoring and 42nd in yards per play. But four of its games have been against defenses ranked in the top 10 nationally, with two others in the top 20.
This is Bobo’s second year back as the coordinator. When he met the media this time in 2023, it was after a better statistical year, but the team didn’t have a chance at a championship. This time, Bobo still has a chance to set the narrative.
Georgia has two new tailback injuries: Roderick Robinson and Branson Robinson are both expected to miss the rest of the Playoff with unspecified injuries sustained during practice.
That ends injury-riddled seasons for both players and removes the team’s most physical runners.
It hasn’t been a great rushing season anyway, as Bobo acknowledged. Georgia is only 11th in the SEC in rushing yards per attempt and 15th in total rushing yards per game.
Georgia was in the top three the previous three seasons and was once known as Tailback U., including during Bobo’s first stint as offensive coordinator.
The offensive line is pretty much in full health now. Etienne is, too, and with Nate Frazier, Georgia has two dynamic options out of the backfield, while Cash Jones is a veteran blocker and pass catcher. With Stockton at quarterback, a better running game is needed against Notre Dame.
Play Defense and run the ball are keys to Georgia’s victory.
Georgia 23 Notre Dame 13.
Playoff Predictor
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Georgia Bulldogs are heading into the College Football Playoff with a lot of momentum after taking down Texas in the SEC Championship.
What a game that was, a 22-19 overtime thriller that saw quarterback Carson Beck leave the contest with an injured elbow, only to return on the final, game-winning play.
The Dawgs have now landed the No. 2 seed in the 12-team CFP bracket, right behind No. 1 Oregon.
While being the top seed is usually the goal, this time, being No. 2 might actually work out better for the mean machine in red and black.
The Bulldogs have a first-round bye and will kick off their playoff run in the quarterfinals at the Allstate Sugar Bowl.
Their first opponent will be the winner of a matchup between No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 10 Indiana.
Neither team has proven much this season. Indiana only faced one tough opponent, Ohio State, and lost 38-15.
Notre Dame’s best win was a road victory over Texas A&M back in Week 1, but they also suffered an embarrassing loss to Northern Illinois at home.
For Georgia fans, even with the uncertainty surrounding Carson Beck, this setup is about as good as it gets.
If Georgia makes it past the quarterfinals, they’ll face either No. 3 Boise State, No. 6 Penn State, or No. 11 SMU in the semifinals.
While these teams have had strong seasons, none of them should really scare the Bulldogs.
Georgia’s depth, experience, and talent give them the upper hand in these matchups, setting them up well for a spot in the title game.
The real challenge for Georgia is waiting on the other side of the bracket. That’s where teams like Oregon, Texas, Ohio State, Tennessee, Arizona State, and Clemson are battling it out.
Oregon is the toughest opponent in the field, and Georgia would be underdogs against them.
Matchups with Texas or Ohio State would be close, but the Bulldogs are favored against Tennessee, Arizona State, and Clemson.
Looking at the odds, Georgia has a 75.5% chance to beat Clemson, 66.9% against Arizona State, and 63.6% against Tennessee.
Games against Texas and Ohio State are more of a coin flip, with Georgia’s chances sitting at 50.4% and 49.6%, respectively.
Oregon is the toughest draw, with Georgia having just a 45.7% chance to win.
The good news? Georgia won’t have to face those tougher teams until the championship game, giving them a smoother path than most.
The wildcard in any of these playoff scenarios is the health of Carson Beck. The quarterback is currently dealing with an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, which is his throwing arm. Georgia released a statement on Monday confirming the injury and shared that Beck and his family are exploring treatment options. At this time, there’s no clear timeline for his return.
If Beck is unable to play, Georgia is likely to rely on sophomore Gunner Stockton.
Stockton, a former four-star prospect out of Rabun County High School, stepped in during the SEC Championship game, completing 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards.
While he threw an interception that contributed to Texas tying the game, Stockton also delivered key moments, particularly with his mobility. In overtime, his 8-yard run helped set up Georgia’s game-winning touchdown.
After the win over Texas, teammates expressed confidence in Stockton’s ability to manage the offense. Georgia appears ready to adapt as they move forward in the postseason.
While no playoff game is ever a guaranteed win, Georgia’s bracket setup gives them a solid shot at making it back to the National Championship.
With Kirby Smart at the helm and a favorable draw, the Bulldogs have every reason to feel good about their chances to bring another title home to Athens. It’s going to be an exciting ride, but Georgia fans have plenty to be confident about as the playoff kicks off!
The Bulldogs will play next in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 1st in New Orleans. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:45pm EST.
All Bark?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
If anyone’s wondering how important Georgia’s showdown against Tennessee is on Saturday, let me tell you.
Win, and all is OK, full steam ahead to the College Football Playoffs and perhaps even a National Championship.
Lose, this season is set, but not in a good way.
It’s not ideal for any team to lose football games, but it happens. It’s much less ideal to try to clean up two viral messes from that loss. It’s even less ideal to field a question about whether to change quarterbacks.
The first viral moment: Carson Beck, starting and beleaguered quarterback, was spotted smiling on the bench as he spoke with backup quarterback Jaden Rashada during the fourth quarter of Georgia’s 28-10 loss to Ole Miss (UGA’s largest point margin loss in five years).
The visual was seized as a symbol of what’s wrong with Beck and perhaps the entire Bulldog football team.
The optics were poor and out of context: Harlen Rashada, Jaden’s father, posted, showing the moment before, Beck not smiling, Jaden Rashada telling him something that made him laugh.
Here the internet had birthed yet another out-of-context viral moment.
Beck’s on-field play has noticeably regressed. The easy excuse is he wasn’t focused during the offseason, between his Lambo and his personal life. Beck told me in the spring he wasn’t working any less, he was taking time to enjoy life after four years of hard work, which he certainly had earned.
We have seen many young athletes enjoy their life as a college student, and still thrive on the field.
It also feels invalid to attribute the offensive troubles to Beck’s leadership. He’s never been a rah-rah quarterback, and Stetson Bennett wasn’t either.
The difference might be the leaders around Beck. Nobody appears to have filled the void left by center Sedrick Van Pran. There isn’t an obvious alpha personality on the other side of the ball the way this year’s defense has Jalen Walker.
But the defense shouldn’t be absolved of blame, either. It came up huge in the wins over Texas and Clemson but also gave up big plays at Ole Miss, started soft against Alabama and has earned a reputation of inconsistency, ranking eighth in the SEC in defensive yards per play.
It’s not like a great defense is being wasted. A ton of world-class athletes on defense aren’t playing to their potential. Luckily for them, there’s still time. There’s still time for the whole team.
In the wide scope of this season, going 10-2 with this schedule is perfectly acceptable.
The focus then moves to how Georgia performs in the Playoff, where pressure still waits, but the minimum threshold of making the dance has been hit.
Missing the Playoff, meanwhile, would in the kindest interpretation mean that Georgia was a flawed team undone by a brutal schedule.
The harsher takeaway would be that the schedule exposed a team that isn’t very good and the program has work to do this offseason to get back to status.
Even then, perspective is needed. This is a program that has won two of the past three national championships, then fell short but still went 13-1. If anyone has earned leeway to slip its Georgia.
If any coach has shown he can adapt and make needed changes, it’s Smart. Panicky fans need to touch grass.
Georgia may feel a lot better after Saturday. Through these years of winning Smart has loved to say that “humility is a week away.” Well, humility is here, and so is the chance for redemption.
15 Yellow Hankies
By: Charlie Moon
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Every time she sees Mark Richt on TV, my mom says, “Ain’t he so cute.” My dad would have no choice but to just laugh it off.
One of the greatest shots of Richt’s famous dimpled smile, was in 2007 against Florida. Knowshon Moreno had just opened the scoring in the 1st quarter. Then, came one of the most iconic rivalry moments.
CBS’s Verne Lundquist: “Moreno. Did he break the plane? Yes…Touchdown! The entire team is coming out! We may have 15 yellow hankies!”
Then, a perfect example of why I always say TV production crews for college football run circles around NFL.
Perfection. Video went to a high overhead shot, a perfect storm of red, white and silver, storming the end zone.
Some demean color analyst Gary Danielson. I say they’re crazy. Perfect example? Danielson follows during this overhead shot; “This was all absolutely planned. Mark Richt has decided he is tired of the Florida Gators having the psychological advantage over UGA.”
As Danielson was saying that, video went to UGA senior defensive end Marcus Howard. He was banging his chest with both fists. His 27 2-foot-long dreads were bouncing. Dude looked like a crazed madman! The Dawgs had psychologically released.
Then, the video got Tim Tebow and two teammates on the Gator sideline. Everybody remembers how animated Tebow was.
Not this time. You’d think Tebow would be gathering his guys in their own sideline huddled mass and doing that thing where he looked in their eyes and pointed to the heavens.
But this time, he just stood there, with his eyes and mouth wide open. Kind of like Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning looked like against Georgia.
Tebow was stunned. The Gators were stunned. This was the moment the rivalry turned.
That’s right. The majority of the Dawgs team had stormed the end zone and was dancing like it was 1999. At first, I was like “What in the world are we doing!”
Then my brother Chad started getting jacked up! “This is a message! We’re not taking it anymore! Let’s go. Go Dawgs!”
The cameras panned to the normally reverent and serene Mark Richt on the sideline. He was clapping and had this sly grin on his face.
There wasn’t a single UGA coach scurrying out to pull players back. Normally, you’d see that in a situation like this, right? Not this time!
Danielson was right. It was planned. UGA initially denied it, but everyone knew. And I don’t care what Richt said after the game, we all knew.
In the following off-season, Richt pretty much admitted, players pitched it during the annual pre-Florida game off week. Richt initially said no way. But he eventually ruled in favor of the players, with a few restrictions.
It had to be with the Dawgs in an early lead or tying situation. No celebrations, down 21 in the 4th quarter. No direct taunting of Florida players in the end zone, or toward their sidelines.
To their credit, players did follow these guidelines. But the funniest shot was of 320-pound OL Trinton Sturdivant breaking out in what can only be described as his own “Big Boy” version of River Dance.
The Dawgs went on to win 42-30, but it really wasn’t that close.
Under Spurrier and Meyer, the Gators dominated the series, 15-2. So often, though, it wasn’t because of dominating rosters. The Gators simply were in the Dawgs’ head.
Annually, tight games would turn on a dime with one UGA mistake. Then the wheels would come off.
But the Dawgs have gone 10-6 against the Gators since then. This was the day the series turned.
Playoffs?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia looked like the best team in the country most of last season. But the College Football Playoff passed without Kirby Smart’s Dawgs because they had to face an elite Rolling Tide in the SEC championship, and the upset win for Nick Saban’s team ended up keeping Georgia out of the playoffs.
Could Georgia fall victim to a brutal schedule in a supersized conference? Could one of college football’s best teams miss the Playoff again? It’s possible after the Bulldogs lost on the road last Saturday at Bama.
Georgia rallied from a 28-0 hole to take the lead before Ryan Williams’ spectacular catch-and-run allowed Alabama to reclaim the lead and secure Kalen DeBoer’s first big win as Crimson Tide coach.
The Bulldogs might have an even tougher game next month at Texas, a team that beat Alabama last season in Tuscaloosa. Texas made the Playoff last year and already routed Michigan in Ann Arbor this year.
Three weeks later, they have another tough road trip to face a loaded Ole Miss roster in Oxford with Playoff hopes of its own (despite a shocking loss Saturday to Kentucky). And a week later Georgia hosts Tennessee, a team as good as any in the country.
Bigger conferences mean schedules are tougher. Among national title contenders, no one has a tougher in-conference schedule than Georgia this year- which is rather inexplicable in the first year of the SEC’s 16-team configuration with Texas and Oklahoma.
All together, the Bulldogs face three opponents ranked in the current top AP top five, plus No. 12 Ole Miss.
It’s still easy enough to assume Georgia can or will win all of their remaining games, considering the Dawgs return quarterback Carson Beck at a program that hasn’t finished lower than No. 7 in the past seven seasons.
But Georgia also got bullied by Alabama for a half before it came alive. Georgia also didn’t score a touchdown until the fourth quarter in a 13-12 win against Kentucky earlier this season.
So, let’s say Georgia, which opened with a quality win over Clemson , navigates the rest of its schedule and avoids landing on the wrong side of any shocking upset.
It’s not unthinkable that Georgia goes 1-2 at Texas, at Ole Miss and home against Tennessee and is sitting at 9-3, likely with just two Top 25 wins on its resume: Clemson and whoever else they can beat. It’s hard to picture it, because Georgia hasn’t lost three regular-season games since Smart’s first season.
If the Bulldogs finish 10-2, they’re in. If they go 9-3, they will have at least one quality conference win and should root for Clemson to win the ACC.
This is Georgia football, if they clinch the Playoff, nobody will want to play them. Can UGA survive the toughest schedule in 2024 and squeak into a championship opportunity?
Trouble In Athens?
By: Charlie Moon
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
My friends in South Carolina are going to be mighty shocked when I say this.
The Dawgs have problems.
Growing up in South Carolina a Dawg fan and being in sports journalism for 2.5 decades, I hear it when I say something about the Dawgs they don’t agree with.
Last year, I said the Dawgs were one of the best four and should have been in the playoff – regardless of the SEC Title loss to Bama. Dawg fan or not, it was what it was. The committee’s goal was to get the best four. The Dawgs belonged – period. Point blank. So many became “Over-reaction guy.”
“How could the Dawgs be in? They just lost to someone outside the top 4.
Or the…. “We don’t want to see Bama and the Dawgs rematch.”
The bottom line was, the Dawgs AND Bama were 2 of the best 4 – if not the best 2. And don’t call me crazy because Bama lost to Michigan. Going into the playoffs, how many of you had Bama beating Michigan?
Once the playoffs were done, experts came out of the woodwork. It was what it was.
But after last Saturday’s field goal fest in Lexington, I’m wondering if the Dawgs will have to be a benefactor of the new 12-team playoff format. I know some of my good ole friends will balk at this, too, but let’s be real.
In the 2- and 4-team format of the last 30 years, there should have been many more SEC squads in, even if it meant as many as 3 of the 4 were SEC squads.
I try not to be hyperbole and/or “overreaction guy.” Y’all know. It’s like “over-reaction guy’s” brother or ”backwards hat guy.” You know that one guy that yells at every play, but probably couldn’t even tell you one offensive line starter. Or they always boo at every flag – even before the ref makes the call.
Well, “over-reaction” guy has it easy this week, saying things like: “Man, the Dawgs stink” or “I told y’all about Carson Beck!”
Then, there’s the elephant in the room. “I told y’all Mike Bobo ain’t no offensive coordinator.” Ahhhh boy, Dawg Nation has argued that since Bobo’s first OC stint between the hedges, 2007-2014.
Deep dive time. Chew on these factoids. In the Dawgs’ 8 quarters against Power 5 teams (Clemson, Kentucky), they’ve tallied just 5 TDs.
In fact, four of the 5 came only in the 2nd half against Clemson alone. It took an entire 3 quarters and 3:00 for UGA to get in the endzone against the Cats.
Maybe the Cats had more brawn than our experts believed, or maybe there’s something amiss in Athens.
Yes, UGA lost guys like McConkey and Bowers from last year, but the cupboard in Athens is supposed to be filled to the brim.
Trevor Etienne ran it for 79 yards on 19 carries. Of those 19 carries, 12, count them, 12 were against 7 men in the box playing the run.
A 6-man line can’t account for 7. Well, sometimes they can. But you can’t expect them to do it all night wrong.
What’s the point here? Either one of two things are happening here.
#1 The OC is not getting the offense into the best fits, which is the job of a coordinator.
#2 The QB is not recognizing and audibling at the line.
Look, no OC is going to have the perfect call and no QB is going to always notice. But to have it happen 12 out of your top RB’s carries, is unacceptable.
Yes, there are times when an OC mandates the call stick and doesn’t give the QB an option to change the call at the line. And of course, there’s this, this is the first year of the helmet earphones allowed for one player. They have the option to communicate with Beck at the line.
And who knows, maybe I’m overreacting. This was not the biggest issue Saturday night, but it was the most glaring to me.
Sure, there could be issues that the UGA coaching staff are not going to discuss with the press. Maybe the receiver core wasn’t ready for the bigtime. Maybe there’s an undisclosed nagging injury to Beck.
Whatever it is I’ll only say this.
If the Dawgs don’t figure this out by September 28, Bama is going Roll our Tide right out the Dawg Pen and they won’t even have to pull an “Al from Dadeville.” Because the whole country will see it.
The Hard Truth
By: Charlie Moon
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I still remember the day my father saying, “Son, always tell the truth.” I was a young boy. I barely remember it, but what I do have is a vision of us riding in the car, and him saying that.
Who knows? I probably told some white lies about eating the last piece of left-over pizza, when it was earmarked for mom.
What does that have to do with the Dawgs?
Former Dawg Brock Vandagriff now quarterbacks at Kentucky. Vandagriff was out of Athens, GA’s Prince Avenue Christian in 2020 as one of the nation’s top QB recruits, he was expected to run the QB room within a couple years.
Because of some dude named “The Mailman,” and the emergence of Carson Beck, that never happened.
He’s telling a truth this season. But what truth?
It tells a hard truth of how Kirby Smart and the Dawgs take a lot of pride in its’ roster and how Kirby is simply not afraid of watching players walk out the door to the NCAA transfer portal.
Back to Vandagriff. Kirby Smart tells hard truths and he had to tell one to his former QB Vandagriff. In December of last year, Smart had his annual meetings with players to tell them where they stood for the upcoming offseason. It’s something many coaches do a version of, but often can’t tell the hard truths.
In this meeting, Kirby told Vandagriff that Carson Beck was the clear #1. In the new age of the transfer portal, this has been difficult for many coaches.
Why? Well, what do ya do? You get honest with a kid that adds depth to your team and they bolt. You lie and you become the coach with the reputation of telling players what they want to hear.
So, what did Vandagriff do? Just 5 minutes after meeting with Smart, he walked back into Smart’s office and told him he was entering the transfer portal.
This was tough for Vandagriff, and Smart as well. No one knows exactly what Smart said to Vandagriff, but judging by what Vandagriff’s dad said in a September 8 Courier Journal (Lexington, KY) column, it was a respectfully mutual conversation between Brock and Kirby.
“Kirby called me and said, ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever coached a finer kid in my life than your son.'”
Greg Vandagriff knows the deal, having been a High School Head Coach in Georgia for 28 years. He’s 97-12 at Prince Avenue with back-to-back state titles.
Let’s be real. There are many coaches that tell players what they want to hear, to keep them from the portal. Smart has never even been rumored to do that.
Even when Dylan Raiola, the 2024 #1 rated QB prospect, decided to transfer to Nebraska, Kirby did absolutely nothing to entice him to stay. He wished Raiola well.
Dawgs And Tigers To Tear It Up
By: Colin Lacy
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Boot meets ball and we’ve got Football in 2024!
While I know college football officially began last week with Week Zero, we have our first full weekend of football coming this weekend and the first marquee game kicks off at Noon with the Aflac Kickoff game between Clemson and Georgia.
The Bulldogs come into the match-up a consensus number 1 team while Dabo Swinney’s Tigers come in as the 14th best ranked squad.
This SEC vs ACC clash is the 65th meeting all time between the two, and a rematch of the 2021 Kickoff game in Charlotte where the Bulldogs won 10-3. That 2021 match-up was the last meeting between the two, and the only touchdown scored in the game was a pick-six by Georgia’s Chris Smith taking a (now former Tiger) DJ Uiagalelei pass back 74 yards to the house in the second quarter to start the scoring.
This game away from Memorial Stadium marks the 5th straight season that Clemson will open the year away from the friendly confines of Death Valley.
The Tigers look to build off the success they had in the back half of 2023. After starting the season 4-4, Clemson finished up the 9-4 slate by winning the final five games of the year.
On the flip side, Georgia has become accustomed to playing inside Mercedes Benz Stadium after having played at least one game inside “the Benz” each of the last eight seasons.
That being said, the Dawgs are looking to get the sour taste out of their mouths from the last contest in Atlanta with the loss in the SEC Championship game last season to Alabama 27-24. While the loss to Alabama still sticks in the crawl of Dawg fans, the loss in the SEC Title game was the only loss in the last 30 contests.
The quarterback match-up is one of experienced signal callers. Georgia’s QB1 Carson Beck ranked third in all the FBS with 3,941 passing yards and was a Manning Award finalist a year ago.
Beck is going to be protected by familiar faces with four returning starting linemen with LT Earnest Greene III, LG, Dylan Fairchild, RG Tate Ratledge and RT Xavier Truss. That combination helped lead the Georgia offense to a school record 7.26 yards per play and leading the country on third down by converting on over 55% of the time.
For the Clemson Tigers, Cade Klubnik already made a name for himself last season already ranking in the top 15 in Clemson history in career passing touchdowns and collected three contests of over 300 yards passing, which is good for 6th best in Clemson lore.
This match-up is the only meeting between two AP Top 15 teams this weekend and clashes two legendary head coaches. Dabo Swinney and Kirby Smart are two of only three active head coaches to have won an FBS National Championship (along with North Carolina’s Mack Brown).
Obviously, Georgia is the favorite in the game, and casual fans have overlooked the Clemson squad for the last year plus, I think Clemson makes this more of a game than many believe.
Clemson hasn’t utilized the transfer portal much, but honestly didn’t need to this year with fourteen returning starters from a year ago from a team that arguably had the most momentum in college football down the back stretch.
So, on Saturday, after a morning of College Game Day, it will lead you to the ABC kickoff in Atlanta for the first major matchup of the season. The Dawgs and the Tigers to kick off your Week 1!
